§ MR. PAULTON (Durham, Bishop's Auckland)asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Whether, considering the painful nature of the process of viewing dead bodies at coroners' inquests in cases of colliery explosions and accidents, he will take any steps to enable a coroner to relieve the jury from this obligation, when sufficient evidence is forthcoming of the identity of the deceased?
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE (Mr. MATTHEWS) (Birmingham, E.)I have no power to dispense with the obligation imposed by law from a very early period on a coroner's jury to proceed only on view of the body; and I should not feel justified in recommending to Parliament any such proposal as the hon. Member suggests. Where numerous deaths have resulted from one accident it is usual to hold an inquest on one or two only of the bodies.